Google would pause the construction of its ‘megacampus’ in Silicon Valley due to budget cuts. This is reported by the American news medium CNBC. This campus had to cover more than 30 hectares and had to include space for offices, homes and shops.
The first demolition phase had already been completed when Google decided to suspend construction, writes CNBC According to the sources that the news medium has spoken to, there are so far no concrete plans to continue construction. The sources expect that if construction does continue, the scale of the so-called ‘Downtown West’ campus will be a lot smaller than planned.
Google, like many other tech companies, is facing a significant decline in revenue. This is partly due to a decline in the field of digital advertising, from which almost all of the company’s income comes. As a result, the company has already announced several rounds of layoffs and wants to reduce the amount of office space.
In a response to CNBC, Google says it is “assessing how best to move forward with Downtown West” and remains “long-term committed” to San Jose, California, the location of the campus. The city’s mayor claims in a response that nothing has changed, and that Google is merely reassessing the construction timeline, according to The Verge.
The construction of the campus was approved in 2021. Downtown West should include more than 680,000 square feet of office space, 4,000 homes, more than 4,000 square feet of retail and “cultural space,” and 6 acres of parkland. According to San Jose, the project should eventually generate more than $19 billion for the city and create 20,000 jobs within ten years.
